George, however, said there was a need for the PDP to zone the chairmanship position to the South West region, arguing that the region had not produced chairman since the formation of the party in 1999.
He stated this when he addressed newsmen shortly after his return from an overseas trip.
The elder statesman also called on the interim national chairman of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sherrif to honour his word to hand over to an elected chairman at the National Convention on May 21 this year.
The PDP leader, in his address entitled: ‘Our Party at crossroads’, strongly debunked the reports in some quarters that he was interested in the chairmanship position, asserting that, “I have no plan, no ambition, slide or straightforward looking for it”.
He, however, said that a lot of his friends, elders of the party had been saying that if the position was zoned to the South West they will push him for it.
He said they were saying this because “you know we are in opposition, there is no Villa any more, no president from our party. Therefore, management of the party must be different, it has to be serious strategic thinking, intellectually bias to reasoning and discourse and network with the people for you to take decision.”
George added that, “On the issue of national chairmanship, based on the spirit of equity and fairness which is the foundation and principle upon which our party was build by our founding fathers, the South West deserved the national chairmanship now.
“This is the right and proper thing which must be done. The South West is a significant zone for the Nigeria federation which cannot and must not be treated with levity.”He also blamed the delegation that went to the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC, for saying that the South West was not interested in the chairmanship position, describing it as a sad development.
“My reaction is that when we started the journey to rebuild the PDP in the South West, none of those people was a member of the party. None of them. Some of them along the line, they jumped on board the ship. The constitution, the foundation, the wherewithal which attracted them to join the party, they had no understanding. How can anybody in a family be washing his dirty linen in the market? It is like one is bringing curse home. Let them come and tell Yoruba people that they don’t want something good for them and see what would happen.
“They were even saying that the chairmanship should remain in the north. Are they really Oodua sons?”Speaking further, he said “Let the zoning committee do its work, the report must be based on just, equity and once the committee submit its report, it is not a mushroom organisation, it will be discussed at the national caucus, at the BOT and then it will go to the NEC of the party for final approval and disapproval”.
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